Hans Dieter Pötsch extended
Hans Dieter Pötsch at the last VW general meeting before Corona with a shareholder presence: The former Volkswagen CFO can be elected a second time as head of the supervisory board.
(Photo: Bloomberg)
Düsseldorf Hans Dieter Pötsch takes over again as Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Volkswagen. As a group spokesman confirmed on request on Saturday, Pötsch wants to be appointed head of the supervisory body for a further five years at the annual general meeting in mid-July.
“The supervisory board proposes to the general meeting to elect the chairman of the supervisory board, Hans Dieter Pötsch, for a full term of office,” said the spokesman. The VW control committee had a regular meeting on Saturday.
The renewed candidacy of Pötsch was generally expected in the Wolfsburg-based car company. The former VW CFO enjoys the trust of all important shareholder groups. On Saturday, the group’s supervisory board also proposed Louise Kiesling, 63, also for a further five years as the representative of the Porsche-Piëch family of owners for the highest supervisory body. Because of the majority, the confirmation in the general meeting is, as with Hans Dieter Pötsch, only a matter of form.
Conflicts are a constant threat at Volkswagen. There are regular problems, especially between the management board and the powerful works council. In this flammable atmosphere, Hans Dieter Pötsch is the decisive dormant pole for many in Wolfsburg. Its main task is to bring the heated minds together and to prepare the ground for compromises and solutions.
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The owner family brought the 70-year-old Upper Austrian into office a good five years ago; he is their mainstay. But not only: The state of Lower Saxony and the desert state of Qatar, the other two important shareholders of Volkswagen, do not want to forego the services of Pötsch if his term of office ends regularly at the next annual general meeting. “When he is ready, the largest shareholders will confirm him in office,” said Wolfsburg in March.
“Dieselgate” brought Pötsch to the top of the supervisory board
“I value Mr. Pötsch’s experience, his pragmatism and his calmness,” said family spokesman Wolfgang Porsche to the Handelsblatt at the time. He is an honest broker for the different interests of the Volkswagen Group. “For him, it’s basically about the thing, not about himself.”
“Mr. Pötsch’s competence and ability to integrate play an important role in the fact that the group has mastered many problems and is on the right track,” praised Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD).
Five years ago it was unthinkable for many that Pötsch would be granted another term of office. Of all things, the affair involving manipulated exhaust emissions from diesel cars, which has cost the group more than 30 billion euros and which shook the entire automotive industry in autumn 2015, brought him to the top of the supervisory board.
At the time, the public prosecutor and investors attributed the suspicion to long-time VW CFO Pötsch that he might have kept the billion-dollar “Dieselgate” risk from investors for too long. He was suspected of having been in a key position in the group for so long that he should have heard of the cover-ups. Pötsch belonged to the extended circle of confidants around the long-standing management duo Martin Winterkorn and Ferdinand Piëch.
Despite the knowledge of the risk of prosecution, the major shareholders prevailed in autumn 2015 and appointed Pötsch as chairman of the supervisory board. They disregarded the resistance of small investors as well as the code of good corporate governance, corporate governance. It does not provide for a direct change from the management board to the supervisory board, but requires a two-year break, a cooling-off phase.
In the case of Volkswagen, however, a quick solution was needed at the time, explained a supervisory board. Pötsch not only enjoyed the trust of major shareholders. The works council and management also gave Pötsch the necessary support. “He enjoys a high level of recognition from shareholders and employees,” said Jörg Hofmann, head of IG Metall and his deputy on the VW supervisory board.
His integrative role “was and is extremely important for the management of the group in a difficult environment”. Pötsch was supposed to ensure stability after the exhaust gas affair became known. At the time, no one was sure whether the company would even survive the scandal.
In the meantime, the minds about diesel have calmed down. Also because the public prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig closed its investigation against Pötsch against a monetary issue last year. 4.5 million euros from the VW coffers flowed to the state, Pötsch did not have to pay the additional money himself. It is a second class acquittal, but the risk of prosecution was off the table. This also paves the way for Pötsch’s second term as head of the VW supervisory board.
More: Volkswagen’s secret driver: Hans Dieter Pötsch is facing a second term in office.